Correctional employees' reactions to job characteristics: A data based argument for job enlargement

Job enlargement, an industrial organization innovation that allows workers (within limits) greater responsibility for their jobs is explored and discussed in relation to correctional personnel. Based on responses to tests administered to 104 correctional personnel in a Midwestern state, it was found that industrial findings generalize to corrections.Job enlargement is recommended to improved the personnel and managerial aspects of the correctional institution, to bring the institution into conformity with environmental reality, and to overcome the therapy-custody dichotomy.     

Chest deflection tolerance to blunt anterior loading is sensitive to age but not load distribution

Ninety-three human cadaver tests are used in the development of thoracic injury risk functions with consideration of age and restraint condition. Linear logistic regression models are developed with the set of potential predictors including the maximum chest deflection, the age of the cadaver at death, gender, and the loading condition on the anterior thorax: blunt hub (41 tests), seat belt (26 tests), air bag (12 tests), and combined belt-and-bag (14 tests). Predicted outcomes were the probability of any rib fractures (onset of injury) and the probability of greater than six rib fractures (severe injury). The analysis shows that the injury risk function was not dependent on the loading condition, but was strongly dependent on age. A significant injury risk model with good ability to discriminate injury from non-injury tests (P < 0.0001, chi-square = 21.49, area under receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) = 0.867, Kruskal's Gamma = 0.732) is presented using only maximum chest deflection and cadaver age as predictors of injury risk. The 50% risk of any rib fractures is found to occur at 35% chest deflection for a 30-year-old, but at 13% deflection for a 70-year-old. The 50% risk of severe injury is shown to occur at 33% chest deflection for a 70-year-old, but at 43% for a 30-year-old.     

School Violence Prevention: Current Status and Policy Recommendations

The purpose of this article is to identify an array of strategies that are available to schools to address concerns school violence and to identify some of the potential school or school district policy options related to those choices. We illustrate that many promising options are available to schools to address violence and other inappropriate behavior of students. The very breadth and diversity of these options may pose a problem in attempting to develop a comprehensive local policy on this topic. While many schools have chosen increasingly punitive zero‐tolerance policies as their primary strategy of violence prevention, there is little or no research evidence documenting that such an approach can contribute to school safety. Rather, effective school violence prevention requires comprehensive planning involving documented best‐practice programs, preventive strategies, and effective responses to any violence that may occur. Since research documenting the effects of violence prevention strategies is inconsistent, it is incumbent upon schools to consider carefully which programs best meet the needs of their local situation, and to monitor the effectiveness of new programs in improving school safety and reducing disruption and incivility.     

Civilisation: A Concept and its Uses in Australian Public Discourse

This article examines the concept of civilisation in Australian public discourse, focussing on some recent political uses. Rhetoric defending Australia's traditional attachment to Western civilisation has focussed on three themes — the role of the British heritage in Australian public life, the moral foundations of Australia's “Judeo‐Christian” belief system, and the rational principles of the Enlightenment. Although the language of civilisation is not confined to centre‐right political discourse, it has been most vocal among conservative‐leaning commentators. This article highlights examples of civilisation and its uses in the contemporary Australian context and attempts to give meaning to civilisation in light of debates about Australian history and national identity. I argue in the course of this article that civilisation is differentiated from culture, and that the culture‐civilisation distinction correlates with left‐right political leanings.     

Incarcerated youths with high or low callous–unemotional traits: a comparison controlling for age of crime onset

The aim of this study was to analyze the relevance of callous–unemotional (CU) traits in incarcerated juvenile delinquents. A sample of 160 incarcerated male youths was used. Results showed that youths with high CU traits had an earlier age of crime onset and of trouble with the law, and also had higher levels of conduct disorder. When controlling for age of crime onset, youths with high CU traits showed higher levels of general psychopathic traits and of psychopathy taxon membership as well as lower levels of prosocial behavior, but no differences were found for self-reported delinquency, crime seriousness, impulsivity-conduct problems, and general conduct problems. Also, no significant associations of CU traits with self-reported delinquency and crime seriousness were found when controlling for age of crime onset. Future studies of CU traits should take into account the specific importance of age of onset.